NEW materials that can change the way light and other forms of radiation bend around an object may provide a way to make objects invisible.
Two separate teams of researchers have come up with theories on ways to use experimental "metamaterials" to cloak an object and hide it from visible light, infrared light, microwaves and perhaps even sonar probes.
Their work suggests science-fiction portrayals of invisibility, such as the cloaking devices used to hide space ships in Star Trek, might be truly possible.
Harry Potter's cloak or The Invisible Man of films and fiction might be a bit harder to emulate, however, because the materials must be used in a thick shell.
The concept begins with refraction - a quality of light in which the electromagnetic waves take the quickest, but not necessarily the shortest, route. This accounts for the illusion that a pencil immersed in a glass of water appears broken, for instance.
"Imagine a situation where a medium guides light around a hole in it,'' physicist Ulf Leonhardt of Britain's University of St Andrews, wrote in one of the reports, published in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.
The light rays end up behind the object as if they had travelled in a straight line.
"Any object placed in the hole would be hidden from sight. The medium would create the ultimate optical illusion: invisibility," Mr Leonhardt wrote.
"Such devices may be possible. The method developed here can be also applied to escape detection by other electromagnetic waves or sound."
The theory is different from that used on modern "stealth" bombers, for example, which bounce radar off their surfaces so they cannot be seen.
Instead, an object would be encased in a shell of metamaterials and they would create an illusion akin to a mirage, said David Schurig of Duke University in North Carolina, who worked on the second report.
Metamaterials are composite structures that deliberately resemble nothing found in nature. They are engineered to have unusual properties, such as the ability to bend light in unique ways.
Like all physics, the invisibility idea requires a little imagination.
"Think of space as a woven cloth," Mr Schurig said. "Imagine making a hole in the cloth by inserting a pointed object between the threads without tearing them."
The light, or microwaves, or radar would travel along the threads of the cloth, ending up behind the object without having touched it.
"You just need the right set of material properties and you can guide light," Mr Schurig said.
Women trained as religious guides in a pioneer programme are not authorised to lead prayers or to hold the post of imam, Morocco's official religious authority has ruled.
The fatwa came weeks after Morocco's first 50 female "morchidat," religious guides, completed training by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, which oversees Morocco's mosques.
The ruling, announced on Friday, will not affect the work of the morchidat, but does bar the women from extending their role to leading prayers or becoming imams.
The morchidat program is part of an effort by authorities in this North African country to promote a moderate Islam as it grapples with Muslim extremism.
The fatwa cited Morocco's official and historical adherence to the Malaki rite, under which "women are not authorised to lead prayer, as imams of the rite have taught throughout history". The fatwa also noted that no precedent could be found in Moroccan history of women leading prayer.
However, it added, "The fact that women do not lead prayer diminishes neither their value nor their role."
Minister of Islamic Affairs Ahmed Toufiq, who convened the ulema, or religious leaders, to debate the question of female imams, told reporters that the morchidates "will not assume today, nor tomorrow, nor in the future the role of imam, as it is reserved exclusively for men", Morocco's L'Opinion newspaper reported.
"The role of the morchidat is to give people basic instruction in religion," Kadiya Aktami, a mourchida said. "Above all it is to explain the fundamentals of religion -- especially a specifically Moroccan version."
The morchidat will work in mosques, but plans to extend their work to hospitals, schools and prisons. "Any public sphere is open to us," says Aktami. "The mosque is just the start."
#2
The gist of what they are doing is to try and teach dirt dog ignorant peasants a few basics of "less-violent" Islam. As it is, for them "Moslem" is just a name of what they call themselves, and they have to bow towards the East while somebody says something in Arabic they don't understand.
Remember that in northwest Africa, the peasants can be utterly savage and murderous in ways that even Moslems get queasy over. So this is the government effort to get them to tone it down.
#3
This is a very good idea, as well as a foot in the door. In another 300-400 years, if Islam still exists, they'll be allowed to lead prayers. In another millenium, they'll become imams. Islam moves slow, which is why most muslims are still mired in the 7th century.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/01/2006 19:08 Comments ||
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Rwandan president Paul Kagame on Wednesday dismissed the Oscar-nominated drama "Hotel Rwanda" as an attempt to rewrite the history of the central African country's 1994 genocide.
The 2004 film refueled world interest in the massacres, in which some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered in 100 days of killings. "Hotel Rwanda" stars Don Cheadle as Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a luxury hotel in the Rwandan capital Kigali who uses his position to help save more than 1,200 Tutsi refugees.
Kagame said the movie's portrayal of Rusesabagina as a hero during the genocide was false. "It has nothing to do with Rusesabagina," Kagame told reporters during a visit to Washington. "He just happened to be there accidentally, and he happened to be surviving because he was not in the category of those being hunted."
The movie portrays that accurately. Mr. Rusesabagina is a Hutu and initially wasn't hunted. He was the hotel manager and just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Kagame said people in the hotel were saved in part because U.N. forces occupied the hotel and because the killers wanted to keep it as a place where they could drink beer after a long day of killing and discuss whom to kill the following day.
Also noted in the movie. The hotel was protected by some big-shot generals. That allowed Mr. Rusesabagina to save people.
Kagame, a Tutsi, said another reason lives were spared is that talks had been underway between his rebel group and the then-interim government to exchange Tutsis in the hotel for Hutu soldiers captured by his group. "Someone is trying to rewrite the history of Rwanda and we cannot accept it," he said.
The talks didn't seem to go very well, did they? And why did the rebels focus on the Tutsis in the hotel when there was a whole country of Tutsis being slaughtered? Mr. Kagame is telling porky-pies.
Some survivors of the genocide also have been critical of movies about the slaughter, saying Hollywood got their story wrong.
It's one story. You got another story to tell? Make a movie.
Amid international inaction, the genocide was finally ended by Kagame, who led a rebel army from Uganda to seize power.
Rusesabagina, awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom last year, has recently been critical of the Kigali government, accusing it of continued human rights violations and oppression of political opponents.
And I'll bet he's right. Neither tribe is on the side of the angels.
#3
He didn't carry a machete; he's a Tutsi and was the rebel commander.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/01/2006 18:13 Comments ||
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#4
Paul Kagame received training in tactics from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College(Fort Leavenworth, Kansas).
"U.S. officials were deeply relieved that the rebels had halted the massacres, thus ending pressure for a U.S.-led intervention. They also said they were greatly impressed by Kagame's leadership. By the end of the war, some U.S. officials had concluded that Kagame was "a brilliant commander, able to think outside the box," as one put it. "He was a fairly impressive guy," added the official, who met Kagame in the early 1990s. "He was more than a military man. He was politically attuned and knew what compromise was.""
"As he watched from his camps along the Biumba road, this was the chessboard upon which Kagame had to focus all his strategic faculties: French armor in Hutu hands, French heavy weapons, a Hutu military for which France and Belgium had successfully bought time for a huge buildup-Hutu airborne troops and 30,000 regulars, all trained by the French. Against this, he had no armor and no heavy weapons, just mortars and rocket-propelled grenades that Uganda had to pretend it didn't supply."
Posted by: john ||
06/01/2006 18:54 Comments ||
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#5
Just prior to or in the early days of the massacre, France "forgot" to cancel an arms shipment to Rwanda. Also, in the early days, French troops were guarding the then-Rwandan leadership.
Some how that made it to U.S. National Public Radio. It also just as promptly disappeared.
Responding to questions about whether or not women had earned their political independence, dean of Kuwait University's faculty of Sharia, Prof Mohammed Al-Tabtebaei, recently issued a fatwa about how women should vote in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, reported Al-Watan.
In it, Al-Tabtebaei said husbands could direct their wives' voting choice by using their right of divorce, or the threat of divorce, if they vote for a candidate other than their choice. He said that even if a woman does so in secret she could still be legally divorced.
However, Al-Tabtebaei urged husbands not to abuse such a God-given right and reminded them that by the mere utterance of the word, be it meant or said in jest, divorce becomes effective.
It is a well-established fact in Islam that if a man utters a threat to divorce his wife for disobeying his instructions, or doing something against his wishes, and continues to do so even after he has warned her about it, the wife will be considered divorced.
Responding to this Fatwa, seventh constituency candidate, Aisha Al-Reshaid, expressed astonishment. "I consider that such a fatwa is specifically designed to attract and amass votes for a certain candidate and to deprive females of the right to take part in the process", she said, wondering how the Government could allow such interference in the electoral process.
She added that Al-Tabtebaei had never said this when other elections were held, for the municipal council, coops, students unions, teacher societies, or the social reform society. "This statement is totally irresponsible", she concluded.
#1
Wealthy old line Kuwaiti families and others in the ME, are having a real problem as they send their young daughters to Europe and the US for schooling. These bright young ladies soon discover that being wife #2 or #3 of a goat wonking, family arranged bridegroom... really ain't whats happening in the real world. A great many of them return to their homeland and reject arranged marriages and elect to remain single or relinquish their dowry and link up with westerners.
#3
I figure the average middle eastern male must have an elephant sized inferiority complex, and a mouse sized wanker. That's the only explanation for what seems like convential behavior.
#5
Besoeker is right on this one. I had a meeting with a nice Kuwait last week. All his daughters live in London. 2 are doctors and the third is in university. Didn't sound like any of them are heading back to the old country. What woman would?
#6
Many Kuwaiti women couldn't care less what Tabtebaei has to say. This latest move is a desperate measure to try and control the female vote. Of course the female vote matters: we are at an advantage with approximately 195,000 potential female voters compared to approximately 140,000 eligible male voters. No wonder they are afraid.
#8
Welcome to Rantburg, Jewaira. Thanks for that bit of background information -- that helps us better understand. :-)
I assume you only just discovered us -- else you'd know we've had a long series of articles posted here from the various Gulf English-language newspapers about local men caught in flagrente delicto with the neighbor's goats, sheep, and the one gentleman who, when caught carrying on with his boss's she-camel in the UAE, announced he was in love with her and planned to marry her. This is something we learned about from your newspapers -- it's not the kind of thing Westerners conceptualize on their own.
As for the racism thing, in my own circle the Muslims come in the entire range of skin colours -- and amongst the North Africans the various shades are often siblings. As do Christians and Jews -- you may perhaps not be familiar with the Falashas, the black Jews of Ethiopia, or the Black African Episcopalian Bishop (I'm afraid I can't remember which sub-Saharan country he comes from. My apologies.)
#9
Yes, welcome Jewaira! It sounds like you might have a perspective and a point of view that it would benefit us to hear. I also hope you will check in from time to time and add comments on any article or comment of interest here. You may find ideas and opinions expressed by others (myself included) here unpleasant or unfair at times, but intelligent disagreements and debates are what make Rantburg special. That and the great belly laughs. And the wide range of knowledge and experience of the people who comment here. OK, there's lots of reasons . . . but the point is that you sound clever enough to hold your own in a lively discussion, so I hope you participate in the future.
#10
The black African Episcopal Bishop is from Kenya. I worked with a nice woman from Kuwait, Reem Jashan, who was a software engineer at LSI, where I worked. She was the daughter of a Kuwaiti mother and a German father, and VERY independent. She went back a few years ago. I haven't heard from her in about two years now. The last I heard, she was going back to the States to get married. She's my source for what little knowledge of Kuwait I have. I know more about Moscow, another place I've never been, than I do about Kuwait.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/01/2006 19:16 Comments ||
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Bolivian President Evo Morales said the U.S. organized teams to track down and kill him, according to a note published on the Bolivian presidential Web site.
Morales, speaking at the opening of a hospital that was built with help from Cuba in the town of Escoma, Bolivia, said he recently found out about the plots against him, the state newswire ABI said in the report on the presidential Web site.
The allegations are unfounded, U.S. Embassy in La Paz said in a statement sent to journalists by E-mail. Calls to the Bolivian presidential palace requesting comment were not returned.
#6
What the hell is wrong with S. America, did someone put something in the water. Why do we want to kill this asshat for. State Dept. should come out with a press release that sez the next time that a country leaders sez we are going to assassinate them, we will.
#12
Delusions of grandeur........don't flatter yourself Evo, there's a lot of douche bags we'd like to clip.
I dunno... perhaps you just want to maim him.
#15
Evo - your military will kill you after you drive all foreign investment out and the country falls into the economic toilet. 1000% inflation? Bwahahaha *BANG*
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/01/2006 14:55 Comments ||
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#16
First you nationalize the oil. Then you create the spectre of Yankee oppression. Next step: community self-defense committees to be given rifles by the gummint. Then you talk about changing the constitution so that you can rule forever.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/01/2006 15:07 Comments ||
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#17
Easy Steve. You're better at this than they are....
#18
We should have some kind of leak that indicates Evo and Chavez are really on the CIA payroll (why the US didn't support the coup against Chavez) and see what happens to their support.
#19
Evo has given Chavez one too many blumpkins. He has appearantly caught whatever disease Chavez has.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/01/2006 15:41 Comments ||
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#20
Evo: Time for a job change mate. Less stress, more qualify family time, etc. Juan Valdez has recently announced his retirement. Attached is the link, the job is yours. The coffee is free, but you must bring your hat and and boro.
Bolivia's largest agribusiness group said Wednesday it would form "self-defense" groups to defend land its fears the government will confiscate in a proposed reform. The government plans to redistribute land roughly twice the size of Portugal.
The National Farming Confederation said in a published statement that it rejected the President Evo Morales' agrarian policy and said he "was trying to destroy the country's productive apparatus." The group did not detail what they meant by "self-defense" groups. In other parts of Latin America the term has been used to describe groups of armed citizens.
The Morales administration rejected the idea. "The government cannot accept their announcement because these groups are illegal and border on being criminal," said Alfredo Rada, a deputy minister in charge of coordinating among the government and the country's civil organizations.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Comrad Morales, you are a bonehead. First, you confiscate their weapons, then you put them on a starvation diet, THEN seize their land. Learn from our example comrad.
Posted by: Stalin ||
06/01/2006 0:04 Comments ||
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#2
Probably the rich European ranchers and farmers around Santa Cruz. They could secede to Brazil or Paraguay and Evo wouldn't be able to do a thing. Hopefully we're finally starting to learn this divide and conquer stuff. We could practice in Latin America and when we get really good at it, apply it in Dar al Islam.
From East Asia Intel, subscription.
SEOUL — In North Korea, almost every year since the early 1990s has been characterized by hunger, especially for rural villagers. However, reports from North Koreans near Sino-North Korean border towns indicate that the situation this year is similar to those of 1994 and 1998, when great famines struck the country and hundreds of thousands starved to death.
According to people in search of food coming to Yanji from the town of Musan, North Hamkyong Province, villagers call this spring “yellow spring,” meaning the spring sky looks yellow to their hungry eyes. A villager whose family name was Yi [Lee], said burglars even stole transformers from power stations to sell as scrap metal. Because so many thieves were around, most village families and many town people put wires over their windows and even on the roofs to keep burglars from taking their food or livestock.
Yi said that most of his neighbors had been to China in search of food or to make money, but that he had never tried to cross the river. But this year he could not bear the hunger any longer so he joined three other town people and bribed border guards. Yi’s companion, named Choi, said he had been waiting for the government's promised produce distribution to come on April 1, but it never did. “After I got here, I learned April 1 is the ‘April Fools’ Day. We are April fools,” he said, laughing. Another man from near Musan, said: “I have bought lots of cigarettes and some spirits because we need them to pass the customs and border sentries and the party officials at home when we get back.”
Other North Korean citizens in Yanji said after the July 1 reform measure in 2002, only powerful people receive grain distribution and ordinary citizens have to buy produce from the open market and government distribution centers. Although the official price for rice was 45 Won per kilogram and 25 Won for corn, they were trading for 950 Won and 350 Won at the market. “We have to live two weeks with five days of distribution. The old and the weak are dying now, just like in 1998,” said a man from Hoeryong, North Hamkyong Province. “The difference is that at that time the dying people blamed the United States' economic sanction on us. But now people blame the party.”
Last month, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its report on North KoreaÂ’s 2006 grain production forecast, said the country would have a rice shortage of 900,000 tons, barring no natural disasters. The report predicted that about 3.9 million tons of rice would be harvested if the weather continued to be agreeable.
Even though about 300,000 tons of rice would be aided by China and South Korea, North Korea would still need more than 150,000 tons more to feed its population. However, North Korea experts in South Korea point out that the distribution system has crumbled and, as a result, more produce is being held by powerful organizations and people, making life for the general public even more difficult. Another example of how socialism trickles down to the general populace. Literally a trickle.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/01/2006 13:27 ||
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a hungry army is something even Kimmy couldn't risk
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/01/2006 17:39 Comments ||
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#2
Not even the Norkie Army is immune - despite their shiny uniforms and colored photos, you can still see or detect weakness and physical emaciation due to malnourishment. The only good these soldiers can do is to PC die believing they are librating South Korea when in reality the DPRK regime is trying to eliminate them as witnesses to Commie abuses in any post-war war crimes trials. Any and all witnesses are dead - what famine didn't kill, attacking South Korea did. OOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPSIES
Edited to the new stuff; see Dan's article below for more.
South Korea's main conservative party scored a landslide win in local elections, official results showed on Thursday, dealing a blow to the president that prompted the resignation of a party boss tipped as his possible successor.
The drubbing for President Roh Moo-hyun's liberal Uri Party leaves him in a weak position to advance his agenda of economic reforms and closer ties with North Korea for the little under two years he has left in his term, analysts said. It also puts the conservative opposition Grand National Party (GNP) in the driver's seat ahead of the December 2007 presidential election and parliamentary polls the following year.
Uri party leader Chung Dong-young, a possible presidential contender, told reporters he was quitting to take responsibility for the loss.
The GNP, riding a wave of sympathy for its leader who was slashed in the face during the campaign, and disenchantment over the economy, won 12 of 16 major races for mayors and provincial governors in Wednesday's elections. The GNP won the biggest race, that for mayor of Seoul, where about one in five South Koreans live.
Uri, which translates as "us". picked up just one seat, the National Election Commission reported. The smaller Democratic Party won two of the major regional races and an independent won the final race, it said.
#1
The number one concern about the North here in South Korea is that Kimmie's lot will collapse into the arms of a South Korea that can't economically afford reunification. SK is just beginning to taste the benefits of an industrialized society and they don't want any part of having to pay for rebuilding the disaster in the North. They saw what Germany went through over reunification, and what it is still paying, and they don't intend to have the same thing happen to them. They haven't forgotten having the IMF give them their marching orders in the late 90's either. Much as I hate to admit it, that's probably good thinking because trying to afford reunification might sink South Korea as well.
Posted by: mac ||
06/01/2006 9:55 Comments ||
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#2
I don't see that South Korea has a choice, mac. It's their country that was split in half by the communists, after all, and their -- literal -- brothers and mothers and cousins who are being systematically starved and tortured to support Kimmie's war machine. The longer they put it off, the more painful it will be in the end, like it or not. Their beef with the international finance community and the IMF is legitimate, as far as I can understand it, but they weren't the only victims in the region of financial ignorance, enthusiasm, and bullying by the well-heeled. Hopefully the new government understands this.
#3
Biggest problem Germany faced with reunification was the labor unions forcing western pay rates on the East. Seems like a pretty easy mistake to avoid.
#4
I agree with you, TW, but it appears that most of the South Koreans simply refuse to acknowledge the North and its problems. They don't wanna know. You truly do hear more about NK in the States than you do here. As I said earlier, things are just beginning to get good for them here in the South and they don't want anything to upset the apple cart. Iblis has a point about the German unions and reunification; note, though, that the South Korean unions are pretty strong as well. I'd say they easily pull more weight here than the AFL-CIO does at home.
Posted by: mac ||
06/01/2006 18:29 Comments ||
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#5
Asians can indeed be quite good at ignoring the unnacceptable, mac, like the Germans who lived near Nazi concentration camps. Or even elsewhere -- I've a friend who was a schoolboy during the war, and he told me that at the time even he was aware essentially what had happened to his Jewish classmates. So much the worse for the South Koreans -- when the time finally comes (and it will) their children will look at them with the same disgust we reserve for the Nazis and Stalinists... and it will be deserved. The North Korean people will march them through Kim's concentration camps until they are sick unto death of seeing the evil they connived to allow...and the weight of it will be on their souls until the day they die.
#6
There's another little issue that scares many in the South: what is going to happen when, post-collapse, the North Korean intelligence files get opened and Kimmie's spies in the South get outed. That's going to be really embarrassing for a lot of people, some of whom were and are in positions of serious power. It's just one more reason for the South to want the status quo ante to continue.
Posted by: mac ||
06/02/2006 0:03 Comments ||
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South Korea's main conservative party scored a landslide victory in local elections, official results showed on Thursday, dealing a blow to President Roh Moo-hyun and a key aide tipped as a possible successor.
The drubbing for Roh's liberal Uri Party means Roh will likely will have little power to push forward his agenda to implement new tax policy, corporate reform and rules on foreign investment for the little under two years he has left in his term, analysts said. It also puts the main opposition and conservative Grand National Party in the driver's seat ahead of the December 2007 election for South Korea's next president.
South Korean media reported on Thursday Chung Dong-young, the leader of the Uri Party and a former cabinet member in the Roh administration, who was seen as a possible presidential contender, may resign his leadership role to take responsibility for the loss. Uri officials were not immediately available for comment.
The main opposition Grand National Party won 12 of 16 major races for mayors and provincial governors in the election held on Wednesday, while Roh's progressive Uri Party picked up one seat, the National Election Commission reported.
The smaller Democratic Party won two of the major regional races and an independent won the final race, it said. The Grand National Party won the biggest race for the mayor of Seoul, where about one in five South Koreans live.
The drubbing for Uri in the vote for nearly 3,900 posts for mayors, governors, city councillors and regional assembly members was unlikely to affect economic and national security policies in the short run, analysts said. But it comes on the heels of Uri suffering two major setbacks in by-elections for seats in parliament over the past year.
"The humiliating electoral results for the Uri Party will constrain the president's ability to implement his reform objectives, since he will be increasingly perceived as a lame duck," said Bruce Klingner, an Asia analyst for the U.S.-based Eurasia Group, in an email.
Klingner said the results could mean an eventual split for Uri with those who want to see more pragmatic policies on economic reform and foreign policy likely bolting the party, leaving behind supporters for more sweeping reforms.
Roh's popularity has steadily eroded -- with support ratings falling below 30 percent in recent polls -- on public perceptions his government has failed to boost the economy and mismanaged foreign affairs. The Grand National Party was also riding a wave of sympathy for its leader who was slashed in the face during the campaign.
Roh, a liberal former labor lawyer who narrowly won the 2002 election, has struck an accommodating tone toward North Korea and earlier this year said he was willing to make "many concessions" and give "unconditional assistance" to Pyongyang. He has also had his run-ins with Washington, warning the Bush administration Seoul would not support the United States taking hard-line policies toward Pyongyang.
The Grand National Party takes a tough line against its neighbor across the heavily militarised border, an hour's drive north of Seoul. Its leaders have criticized Roh's government for not doing enough to protect human rights in North Korea and said Seoul should attach more strings to the massive aid it gives Pyongyang.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/01/2006 01:11 ||
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#1
looks like the US has another 2 years before Roh gets thrown out. Not much time to redeploy and withdraw forces. The US should immediately express regret for inconveniencing farmers in Pyontaek for build the headquarters. Move the headquarters troops south to Taegu and withdraw another brigade and 1/2 the Air Force. Just be sure to announce the move of all units to Japan or the US by 2008 elections.
Posted by: ed ||
06/01/2006 9:37 Comments ||
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There is broad support in Parliament to give all of those who turn 18 years old during an election year the right to vote.
Swedish youth minister Lena Hallengren has said she understands those who think the minimum voting age of 18 years old is unfair, reports Svenska Dagbladet (SvD). She was born on Christmas day and was not allowed to vote when her classmates who had turned 18 did. “You think you are just as old and have come just as far in development and maturity,” she said, according to SvD.
Hallengren said, “it is well worth thinking over” a law change. “But this is a constitutional question, so even if I wanted to change it, it would take a long time,” she said.
A youth party committee recommended in 1997 to base voting on the birth year rather than on the birth day, but the government did not bring up the topic in the Parliament. An SvD survey shows the idea has broad support. The Left Party, The Liberal Party, and The Centre Party have said they approve the change, while the Christian Democrats have supported the idea since their last congress.
The Green Party wants to lower the voting age to 16 years old. Green Party leader Peter Eriksson said the change would be “a step in the right direction.”
The Moderates are sceptical. Its spokesman for constitutional questions, Henrik von Sydow, said that people should have reached the age of majority in order to vote, according to SvD. Considering which segment of the population is aging - and which isn't - this seems to indicate that many Swedish leaders don't think their traditional culture is disappearing rapidly enough.
Btw, I don't have the figures to back this up, being hollow and shallow at the same time, but young voters in France (under 35, and even more under 25) are much more likely to vote National Front than the average voters. Le Pen's votes come mostly from the young, the unemployed, the self-employed, and the working class. No wonder he's diabolized.
#6
Age laws are generally stupid when they lower anything with public impact below 21, with a few major exceptions - and allow for mature individuals to prove themselves exempt.
I still dont understand why some trooper that has just come back from his 2nd tour in Iraq isnt allowed to buy a beer or a shot - or some 18 year old that just got back on leave halfway through his combat tour in Afghanistan.
I'm at the VFW, and by law I cannot buy one of "my kids" (Kids I know from my time as a scoutmaster) a drink, even when he's a ranger, and a 2 tour combat vet of Iraq and Afghanistan. The kid has more trigger time at 20 than I had at 30.
Its flat out stupid.
Military service should be an exemption. And voting for those under 21 shoudl be simply taken out (excepting military or public service) - they're still children mentally until proven otherwise. Need proof? Go to nearly any college campus and observe.
#8
As the mother of a 16-year old who plans to vote Republican in 2008 (and I'll bet Frank G. can say the same), I say we don't change anything until after that election. The 9/11 generation understands in a way too many of their grandparents do not.
#10
my middle turned 18 and votes (Rep) for the first time next week. He'll do fine
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/01/2006 16:54 Comments ||
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#11
As the father of a 16 year old, I propose raising the voting age to 25 (at least).
I strongly disagree. What makes you an adult? It is not when you are eighteen. It is when you have paid your first facture (that is shamelessly stolen from excellent blog mahmood.tv). In other words, when you become financially autonomous. In fact we could be more concrete: you get the right of vote, the first time you pay taxes, no represnttation without taxaation. It pisses me off, when a student who still lives in papa and mama's house votes for a left-winger who wants to raise taxes. That is why I am for "No taxes, no vote".
And BTW, after the anti-CPE demonatrations in France I am considering in proposing that yougns not ebing allowed to demonstate until they pay taxes.
#12
The CPE was a measure to improve insertion in the job market. The people who demonstrated against it in France were not the people who would be directly affrected by it (ie the pople out of the education system and looking for jobs) but high schoolers (I have seen some as young as ten or twelve) and students. Students in markletable disciplines were conspicuouly absent. The student demonstrator were either students in unmarketable disciplines or first year students (unlike in engineer schools there is no test for entry in French universities: it is only after the first year that real students get separated from those who are there for politics, sex and playing intellectual. In mine, only 20% of students made to second year)
That is why I oppose the right of demonstrate for people who still depend on their parents.
#13
Drinking age should be 18.
I will give another non-alchol reason.
Send a kid to college. Kid needs to move to a new apt or car breaks down... Guess what people under 21 can't rent a car!
Why?
Because if they got drunk under age and had an accident the insurance company and the rental agency could be successfully sued for everything and more!
So the damn drinking age makes it hard to help out children in college with auto breakdowns or just moving.
Stupid Stupid Stupid.
The Central Council of Muslims in Germany argues that the new law was unconstitutional because it does not treat all religions as equal, banning only the headscarf and not the Christian cross or any other religious symbols.
No sense of irony whatsoever.. un-f*cking-believable.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
06/01/2006 8:00 Comments ||
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#3
This article duplicates an article previously posted in the non-WOT section. Sorry.
#4
I'll sympathize with these Muslims on the day of the dedication of a Catholic Cathedral in Riyadh.
Pope Benedict: if Muslim immigrants can claim the benefit of religious liberty in the West, then Christian minorities ought to get the same treatment in majority Muslim nations. .... if the Saudis can spend $65 million to build the largest mosque in Europe in Rome, in the shadows of the Vatican, then Christians ought to be able to build churches in Saudi Arabia.
Dutch Minister Rita Verdonk lost her bid to lead the VVD liberal party and possibly the country on Wednesday as support seemed to fade over her handling of Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The hardliner, dubbed "Iron Rita" for her tough stance on immigration, came under intense pressure after she decided to strip Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, of her citizenship two weeks ago for lying in her asylum application. Furious Dutch lawmakers forced the minister, part of the ruling centre-right coalition, to reconsider her decision over the next weeks on Hirsi Ali, a fellow VVD colleague. Hirsi Ali said she would step down as a lawmaker and leave the Netherlands.
Verdonk's opponent Mark Rutte gained 51 percent of members' votes, whereas she gained 46 percent. Opinion polls had suggested that a VVD led by the high-profile minister would do much better in next year's Dutch general election than with Rutte at the helm. Verdonk, last year voted the Netherlands' most popular politician, congratulated Rutte and said she would support him. Opinion polls were not always reliable she said, though she added: "I would have liked to have found this out another way," Dutch news agency ANP reported.
With her plain-speaking and tough new policies on immigration, Verdonk gained widespread grass-roots approval although her populist traits irritated party elites. Some senior members of the VVD party, including Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm, publicly criticised her over her treatment of Hirsi Ali. Verdonk has introduced tough new citizenship tests, demanded the expulsion of 26,000 unsuccessful asylum seekers and recently rejected fast-track Dutch citizenship for Ivorian footballer Salomon Kalou to allow him to play in the soccer World Cup.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has pardoned a member of a left-wing guerrilla group that carried out one of Italy's most notorious murders. Ovidio Bompressi, of the Lotta Continua group, was serving a 22-year jail term for the murder of Milan police chief Luigi Calabresi in 1972. Justice Minister Clemente Mastella says he will also seek a pardon for Lotta Continua leader Adriano Sofri.
Mr Mastell's centre-right predecessor Roberto Castelli criticised the move.
The murder of Chief Calabresi was commemorated on a set of stamps last year, but left-wingers still blame him for the death of a young anarchist who either jumped or was thrown from the fourth-floor window of Milan's police headquarters in 1969. The incident inspired Dario Fo's play Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
The anarchist, Giuseppe Pinelli, was being questioned about a bomb that killed 16 people in a Milan bank.
Bompressi was jailed in 1997 and previous efforts to seek a pardon were blocked by the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi, which was defeated in April's elections by centre-left coalition led by Romano Prodi. Sofri, 63, was temporarily released from prison last year on health grounds.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/01/2006 01:09 ||
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#1
Yet another reason why the Death Penalty should be the preferred choice of punishment for terrorism, murder, rape, kiddy f*cking. Very simply it just leaves settled business settled.
BERLIN - GermanyÂ’s most populous state, North-Rhine Westphalia, on Wednesday issued a ban on teachers in public schools wearing the Muslim headscarf. It is the eighth of the countryÂ’s 16 regional states to adopt the controversial measure. A law banning the Islamic headscarf was adopted by the regional parliament of the western state where the conservative Christian Democrats hold a majority. The Greens and the Social Democrats voted against it.
That's not a surprise.
The surprise'll come if there aren't any riots.
The Central Council of Muslims in Germany said the new law was unconstitutional because it does not treat all religions as equal, banning only the headscarf and not the Christian cross or any other religious symbols.
Ditto.
"Why's ever'body always pickin' on me?"
Germany, the home to the worldÂ’s biggest Turkish community outside Turkey, saw a heated debate about whether headscarves should be banned in schools in 2003 when such a law was proposed in France. The German constitutional court ruled at the time that it was up to each state to write its own laws on the matter.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/01/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Go farther Ban and all islamic "teaching" of minors claiming it as on a par with NAZI's teaching their brand of National Socalism.
That will really set their turbans to spinning down at the local mosk.
#3
True of most, I agree. But the rest are university students, supported by German taxes while they study, who are actually Al Qaeda and related cadres, plotting their next terror attack between doing engineering problem sets.
#4
Most muslims in Germany are Turks or Kurds, relatively secular and not prone to Jihad
Nope. most Muslims in Germany are Turks and Kurds who do islamic things wich in secular Turkey, and despite Erdogan, would be met with hefty fines and perhaps worse.
#6
I'll sympathize with these Muslims on the day of the dedication of a Catholic Cathedral in Riyadh.
Pope Benedict: if Muslim immigrants can claim the benefit of religious liberty in the West, then Christian minorities ought to get the same treatment in majority Muslim nations. .... if the Saudis can spend $65 million to build the largest mosque in Europe in Rome, in the shadows of the Vatican, then Christians ought to be able to build churches in Saudi Arabia.
#7
Muslims in Germany are Turks and Kurds who do islamic things wich in secular Turkey, and despite Erdogan, would be met with hefty fines and perhaps worse.
One of those things is wearing headscarves in a public building, still more if made by a civil servant. In a recent case a woman was charged with contempt of court and fined/jailed because she refused to remove her scarf while giving testimony. This happenned in Turkey, not in Germany.
#9
GermanyÂ’s most populous state, North-Rhine Westphalia, on Wednesday issued a ban on teachers in public schools wearing the Muslim headscarf. (emphasis mine)
I bet the actual wording of the law doesn't mention the world "Muslim" or "Islamic" at all. It probably prohibits Christian and Jewish public school teachers from wearing headscarves, too.
BARELY two weeks after taking office, Giorgio Napolitano, Italy’s President, a former Communist, prompted a dispute with the Italian Right by pardoning an extreme left-wing activist convicted of murdering a police chief in 1972. The move was proposed by Clemente Mastella, the Justice Minister in the new centre-left Government led by Romano Prodi, which also took office a fortnight ago after narrowly winning the general election. “This is outrageous, it confirms our worst fears,” said Roberto Castelli, the Justice Minister in the former centre-right Government led by Silvio Berlusconi. “Italy has moved dramatically to the Left.”
The decision by President Napolitano to pardon Ovidio Bompressi also paves the way for the pardon of Adriano Sofri, an influential leftist intellectual who was also convicted for the killing in May 1972 of Luigi Calabresi, the police chief in Milan. Signor Mastella said that he had also asked the President to pardon Signor Sofri by the end of the year. Both Bompressi and Sofri were members of Lotta Continua, a notorious but long-defunct revolutionary group which played a large part in the bloody street violence that traumatised Italy in the 1970s, a period remembered as “The Years of Lead” (Anni di Piombo) because of the number of bullets fired by police and anarchists.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2006 00:00 ||
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#5
Freeing cop killers is only a symptom. Europe in general and Italy in particular has forgotten right from wrong. Just watch the pile of shit that comes out of europe in the next 20 years.
A new behavior prediction tool is forecasting a landslide victory for former Democratic Vice President Al Gore in the 2008 presidential election. However, should Hillary Clinton gain the Democratic nomination, any potential Republican challenger will win the presidency.
These are among the surprising findings reported by Dr. James N. Herndon, a media psychologist with Media Psychology Affiliates. Using a new research tool called Affective Encryption Analysis, Dr. Herndon led an investigation into the likely outcome of the 2008 Presidential election.
“Affective Encryption Analysis is a new behavior forecasting tool that looks at how our feelings and emotions can influence our long-term actions,” explains Dr. Herndon. “Traditional survey techniques are not very good at predicting trends. Affective Encryption Analysis was developed to dig deeper into the emotional factors that control our future behaviors.”
#5
An amusing way to strip the enthusiasts of funds that might otherwise be spent more effectively. And certainly the official voting results in two years' time will help the media psychologists refine their analytical methodologies. So all in all, not a bad thing.
#6
Computers tend to favor their own. The Gorebot has not gained any charisma since he's been out of the public eye and has managed to gain a lunatic spittle along his lips. He is not electable.
#9
"Among the surprises was the overall weakness of potential Democratic presidential challengers."
No shit? I **NEVER** would have guessed that, not in a million years. Amazing!!!!!
Posted by: Dave D. ||
06/01/2006 12:58 Comments ||
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#10
Among the surprises is that the republican nominees will be JEB Bush and Crazy Jackie McCain
....NOT ! Borons and morons seem to be loose everywhere.
#11
"Affective Encryption Analysis is a new behavior forecasting tool that looks at how our feelings and emotions can influence our long-term actions."
Ah, yes....emotions. How do they rate those again?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
06/01/2006 14:06 Comments ||
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#12
Ah, yes....emotions. How do they rate those again?
The Donks rate those above rational thought
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/01/2006 14:57 Comments ||
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#13
They sit around naked in a circle to do this "research" I am sure. They are happy to give you the answer you or they want as long as you are paying.
#15
"Affective Encryption Analysis is a new behavior forecasting tool that looks at how our feelings and emotions can influence our long-term actions."
Ha! I see big money and a looooooooooooog future in this shit!
#16
Just wait until Chris "Speed Demon" Dodd really comes out!
It'll be a second coming of Joe<,/EM>mentum I tell ya!
Cuter than Hil, smarter than Skerry, NOT from an unsophisticated area (i.e. outside the northeast) like Bayh! And look at all of that productive Senatorial service!
#17
No, no, not VPOTUS Hillary - Iff Dubya doesn't resolve or mostly resolve the Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Taiwan crises by 2008, I strongly doubt the Dems will want to win the WH in 2008. IMHO, the Dems will just "go thru the motions" of having a Dem POTUS contender which they will NOT in reality want to see win, but focus efforts instead on the Congress. SOLVING REAL-WORLD PROBS AND ISSUES IS FOR THE GOP-RIGHT - SPEND SPEND SPEND SOMEONE ELSE'S MONIES and TIPPY TOEING NAKED THRU WAVY GRAVY TULIPS is for the DemoLefties - you know, EQUALISM.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says it's his official duty to attend boxing matches in Nevada and that he did nothing wrong when he accepted complimentary ringside seats from a state agency that was lobbying him. Reid says he would have been criticized for not going to the fight because he has an obligation to make sure the sport kept clean.
The Nevada Democrat was responding to an Associated Press story that detailed how the senator had accepted free tickets possibly valued at several thousand dollars from the Nevada Athletic Commission -- the agency that regulates boxing in the state. At the time, the agency was lobbying Reid to drop his support for the creation of a federal boxing commission that could have undermined the powerful Nevada agency's authority.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Official duties: hypocrite, liar, party hack, sleaze ball.
Dang, Harry. I would not let Teddy give you driving lessons to add to your resume.
The Justice Department yesterday vigorously defended the recent weekend raid of Rep. William J. Jefferson's Capitol Hill office as part of a bribery investigation, asserting that the Democratic lawmaker attempted to hide documents from FBI agents while they were searching his New Orleans home last August. The government questioned in a 34-page motion filed in U.S. District Court here whether it could have obtained all the materials it had sought in a subpoena if it had not launched the surprise raid on Jefferson's congressional office May 20. According to the government filing, an FBI agent caught Jefferson slipping documents into a blue bag in the living room of his New Orleans home during a search.
"It is my belief that when Congressman Jefferson placed documents into the blue bag, he was attempting to conceal documents that were relevant to the investigation," FBI agent Stacey E. Kent of New Orleans stated in an affidavit that was part of the government's court submission. The document was filed in response to Jefferson's lawsuit demanding that the government return to him documents seized during the raid on his Capitol Hill office 11 days ago.
Robert P. Trout, Jefferson's attorney, said he would refrain from commenting pending further review of the government's documents. Meanwhile, the recent FBI raid spurred new tensions between Congress and the administration, as a House committee chairman vowed to interrogate top Justice Department officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
This guy's on tape taking a bribe. How can he still be a Congressman? What does one have to do to get booted out these days? Instead they go after the Justice Dept.? Congress is rotten to the core. I want my country back, dammit.
#3
"It is my belief that when Congressman Jefferson placed documents into the blue bag, he was attempting to conceal documents that were relevant to the investigation," FBI agent Stacey E. Kent of New Orleans stated in an affidavit that was part of the government's court submission.
Good work FBI! Yea Stace, that would be our guess as well. $800,000. USD in the Frigidaire, office documents in a ... 'blue bag?' Wonder if he keeps his socks and BVD's in the glove box of his BWM?
#1
Don't forget crimes that arent sex-related. Murder, robbery, assault, etc. are all disproportionately committed by illegals. A study estimated that 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in LA County were for illegals. Man, if Bush and the Senate don't pull their heads out of their asses, there's going to be a wave of anger in the voting populice the likes of which they've never seen.
#2
This is because immigrant populations traditionally have Mafias and gangs. The expression "Irish criminals" used to be regarded as almost redundant, and all Italians were Mafiosa.
But the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of illegals aren't criminals, they are the majority of the victims of the criminals. That is, criminals tend to prey on their own kind, and in their own neighborhoods.
Unlike other immigrants, however, who integrated in three generations, Mexicans are integrating in all three generations simultaneously. This is actually limiting crime from them as a group.
Had 30 million Italians came over all at once, the eventual Mafia could have fielded brigades of fighters and taken over cities.
#3
Based on a one-year in-depth study, a researcher estimates there are about 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States who have had an average of four victims each.
Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta analyzed 1,500 cases from January 1999 through April 2006 that included serial rapes, serial murders, sexual homicides and child molestation committed by illegal immigrants.
She found that while the offenders were located in 36 states, most were in states with the highest numbers of illegal immigrants. California had the most offenders, followed by Texas, Arizona, New Jersey, New York and Florida.
_________________________________
Moose: Unlike other immigrants, however, who integrated in three generations, Mexicans are integrating in all three generations simultaneously. This is actually limiting crime from them as a group.
Had 30 million Italians came over all at once, the eventual Mafia could have fielded brigades of fighters and taken over cities.
#4
RD: What I said isn't anti-Italian. First generation immigrants are the product of their homeland. Third generation have generally integrated. The second generations, among all immigrants, is where the gangs arise. It is a standard pattern.
The various Italian gangs who later became criminal started as patriotic organizations in the late 19th Century. Had Garibaldi not unified Italy, and murderous chaos reigned instead, and had the means been there, it would not have been impossible for 30 million Italians to make it to the US. As it was, they were still strongly opposed by the KKK from WWI through most of the 1930s, their numbers severely reduced by the war.
However, once in the US, they would have met bitter abuse, segregation, massive unemployment and ghettoization far more than they did. New York could have held only a fraction of that number, so there would have been Italian immigrant ghettos in most of the major cities.
The first generation would have just tried to survive, but the second generation would have *had* to have fought back. And this is where my "brigades" comment came from. They would have organized into citizen protection militias, and most likely under the patriotic organizations they had had in Italy.
Mexicans today have far less threatening pressure put on them by society as a whole. Unlike the Italians or Irish, they are encouraged to integrate, and are even given support as they do so.
So it is no surprise that the path to integration is a lot easier for them, and why, though higher than normal for their ethnic group, crime, even among illegals is not much, much worse than it is.
#5
Mexicans today have far less threatening pressure put on them by society as a whole. Unlike the Italians or Irish, they are encouraged to integrate, and are even given support as they do so.
Moose what alternate universe do you live in?
I don't recall cities with major radio and television programming in Italian or Gaelic. I don't recall major retailers posting signs and running background commericals in other languages in their stores. I don't recall major school administrators and 'professional' educators pushing classes in their native languages. I don't recall since the 60's the promotion of Vietnamese or Haitian only charter schools.
The fact is the illegal community is given nearly everything in a manner so they don't have to integrate.
They are not victims. They choose to come here. There is no and have never been any entitlement to immigration. Go sell the load elsewhere.
And don't give me the crap that this is a nation of immigrants. It was also a nation of slavery. We reached a point where that institution no longer was compatible with reality. Today we no longer need to fill an 'empty' America. We 300 million and growing. We're damned for our consumption now. Time to slow down.
Now if you feel so much for their poor condition, then remember those who didn't make it or couldn't even start to even think of doing it. What about those people, are they so unworthy of equal consideration? If your sentiments are driven by humanitarian concerns then what about them? Then maybe the solution is annexation into an American Commonwealth with Puerto Rico as the model. They don't have to come here. We'll go there.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Officials began slaughtering poultry Thursday in an Indonesian village where preliminary tests showed a 15-year-old boy had died from bird flu, as the country struggled with a sudden rise in deaths averaging one every 2 1/2 days.
All chickens will be killed within one kilometre of the boy's house in the Tasikmalaya district of West Java province, said Budi Utama, head of the local animal and fisheries agency. Indonesian tests on Wednesday found that the boy had contracted the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus, and officials were awaiting confirmation from a World Health Organization-sanctioned laboratory in Hong Kong.
At least 36 people have died in Indonesia from bird flu, out of a total world toll of 127, WHO said. The country averaged one human bird flu death every 2 1/2 days in May, putting it on pace to soon become the world's hardest-hit country, surpassing Vietnam's 42 deaths. I've seen a graph of cumulative bird flu deaths in Indo. It's a classic straight line up on a log scale. Could mean it's spreading H2H. Alternatively it's spreading unchecked through one or more vector populations.
#1
The problem is that darn family cluster. The index case most likely caught the virus from poultry. Nine, cout 'em, nine family members spent the night in her room as she lay dying and about half caught the flu. The cluster distorts the stats. WHO is concerned about the lack of cooperation by local authorities.
I also saw an article from the WHO equivalent for animals that said that they suspect that a number of countries are failing to report H5N1 outbreaks because of the economic or political consequences.
#2
The scientists were all over a recent cluster, in which nine family members died, because two non-genetically related spouses who lived with them did not(!?)
However, the disease is entering an "endemic" state in Indonesia, which may be an essential part of its transformation to an H2H strain. Think of it as a geographical vector, from which the disease can launch.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bolivian President Evo Morales said the U.S. organized teams to track down and kill him, according to a note published on the Bolivian presidential Web site.
Bolivia's largest agribusiness group said Wednesday it would form "self-defense" groups to defend land its fears the government will confiscate in a proposed reform. The government plans to redistribute land roughly twice the size of Portugal.
Dutch Minister Rita Verdonk lost her bid to lead the VVD liberal party and possibly the country on Wednesday as support seemed to fade over her handling of Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The hardliner, dubbed "Iron Rita" for her tough stance on immigration, came under intense pressure after she decided to strip Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, of her citizenship two weeks ago for lying in her asylum application. Furious Dutch lawmakers forced the minister, part of the ruling centre-right coalition, to reconsider her decision over the next weeks on Hirsi Ali, a fellow VVD colleague. Hirsi Ali said she would step down as a lawmaker and leave the Netherlands.
BARELY two weeks after taking office, 
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says it's his official duty to attend boxing matches in Nevada and that he did nothing wrong when he accepted complimentary ringside seats from a state agency that was lobbying him. Reid says he would have been criticized for not going to the fight because he has an obligation to make sure the sport kept clean. 
The Justice Department yesterday vigorously defended the recent weekend raid of Rep. William J. Jefferson's Capitol Hill office as part of a bribery investigation, asserting that the Democratic lawmaker attempted to hide documents from FBI agents while they were searching his New Orleans home last August. The government questioned in a 34-page motion filed in U.S. District Court here whether it could have obtained all the materials it had sought in a subpoena if it had not launched the surprise raid on Jefferson's congressional office May 20. According to the government filing, an FBI agent caught Jefferson slipping documents into a blue bag in the living room of his New Orleans home during a search. 
